Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-23
Human Chemistry.


Not long ago we brought together
several cases of mysterious poisoning,
which were explained by the natural
production OF an alkaloid poison in
animal substances exposed to decay.
This barely hints at line of study
which has for its scope the wonderful
of health and disease, OF
life, sleep and death. OF late years
the bacteriologists have had matters
all their own way. Under the brilliant
lead Of Koch and Pasteur it has come
to be thought that it was only
necessary to discover the micro
organism of disease, and to learn its
h ab &, in order to control its parasites.
But now the chemists step forward
with discoveries and speculations OF
the greatest con emporaneous human
interest. "It is by chemical rather
than by biological inve tigation that
the causes of diseases will be dis
covered and the power of removing
them obtained" said Sir H. E. Roscoe,
addressing the recent meeting Of the
British Association. The basis for
this bold remark will be discussed
with greater interest after following a
little way the path the chemists are
marking out.
The poisons of decay, ptomaines,
were only named fifteen years ago,
and it is no more than five years
since AN American isolated the
alkaloid which produces sickness
after eating milk, meat and fish in a
certain condition. But living organ
isms also develop deadly alkaloids.
The cellular activity of health, as
well ms OF death, develops in the
human body ptomaines, and the
variety of ptomaines characteristic OF
life is called leucomaines. They are
the products OF work, meaning activity
Of function of mind or muscle, and
they are narcotic just like drugs.
When fatigue is greatest leucomaines
most abound they act upon the brain
like a sleeping draught, and when the
fatigue is passed the leucomaines
have disappeared. That is to say,
one combination OF chemical atoms is
succeeded by another, and the cycle
Of work, exhaustion and repair is
gone over again. That is the chemi.
cal theory OF sleep as well as we can
gather it from the account in Science
OF Prof. Errera's address before the
Berlin Anthropological Society.
What is remarkable, then, is to find
learned men observing the functions
OF an organism, and human or
ganism at that, just as they might
study the formation of curious
crystal. A generation ago chemists
drew broad line between organic
and inorganic substances. That there
should be unity of law between the
functions of living things, whether
plants or animals, and the phenomena
of the inanimate world would have
been an astounding proposition
"Vital force" was phrase then used
to express and avoid all difficulties in
the application of chemistry to
physiology and pathology. Even
Eiebig imagined that there was con.
tinually going on in the body con-
flict between chemical diSintegration
and the preservative influence OF vital
force When vital force prevailed
then followed health and life, but
when it suffered defeat then ensued
death and disease. Now contrast the
words of Sir Fl. Roscoe: "Iife is
governed by chemical and physical
forces. Whether these tend
to continue or end existence depends
upon their nature and amount. y
Disease and death are as much a con-
sequence of the operation OF chemical
and physical laws az are health and
life. = The belief in special
vital force has disappeared like the
ignis fatuus, and no longer lures US in
a wrong direction"
1t may he doubted whether there
now lives Dalton or Joule to carry
to its possibility the application of the
great principle of conservation OF
energy to the functions of animals
From medical point Of view the out
look is even more revolutionary.
Take, for instance, such disc lses as
have been traced to microbes. The
doctors idea is that the microbes
Cause the disease. The chemical
theory is that the microbes no more
cause the disease than the yeast cell
produces alcoholic intoxication, but
THAT the symptoms are due to the for
nation of new and definite chemical
compounds, the result OF the life of
these microscopic organisms. The
proof that not the organisms them
selves, but the poisonous substances
evolved during their life cause the
disease is found in the fact that the
poison alone produces the disease
when the organism is entirely absent;
thus, when the faith cure fanatics say
there is no disease, they are perhaps
right in a certain narrow sense never
i'm gined by them. For chemical
combination is not disease in the
accepted sense, any more than is the
theory of gravitatiOn. But as bodies
fall when support is removed, so do,
and will, men die when certain
organic compounds form themselves.
Here lies the hint of a new diagnosis
and new treatment. l'eath follows
too high temperature and too quick
pulses. Drugs may lower the tenn
perature and reduce the pulse, but
wntil the disease is attacked danger
remains. The disease, in the new
theory, is neither the symptoms nor
the microbe which produces the symp-
toms, but the process of forming
within the organism certain chemical
compounds. The treatment would
consist, not in drugging the body into
weakness or coma, but in stopping
such unhealthful chemical activity
or in turning it into new directions by
supplying other elements for the
operation OF healthful chemical pro-
cesses. Thus the doctor of the new
school would be wise in foo Is rather
than in drugs. He would devote him.
self to synthetic chemistry, and woul
study how to produce natural chemico
artificially. II this
sounds too abstruse it can be sim
Dlified by reference to what j. actually
lone now in rude rule-of-thum J.
way. The natives of the arctic regions
hrive on diet which woul give an
,tbJafo a daafhIv in1ivegtion The